Messenger pouch destroyer



Sept. 18, 1956 M. WINER 2,763,209

MESSENGER POUCH DESTROYER Filed Feb. 24, 1945 2 Sheeiis-Sheet 1 Fig. I I

gwua rvbo'b MAX WINER Sept. l8, 1956 Filed Feb. 24,- 1945 Fig. 4

M. WINER 2,763,209

MESSENGER POUCH DESTROYER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 5

MAX WINER.

United States Patent MESSENGER POUCH DESTROYER Max Winer, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of War The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government, for governmental H purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty there- This invention relates to and has for a primary object the provision of a device intended to be used for complete destruction of valuable papers, particularly documents of military value carried in a mail pouch.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a device for causing as complete a destruction as possible in a shortest possible time with no possibility of restoring of any portion of documents.

It has been determined in the early stages of development that heretofore used incendiaries, such as thermite bombs, gasoline gel and Krause mixture, when used alone will not destroy papers in 1 /z-2 minutes if confined in a closed or partially closed space. At best, these will produce partial destruction only, so that some of the incompletely destroyed portions of documents still yield valuable information to unauthorized persons or to the enemy. Prevention of this is one of the main objects of this invenmm.

The use of the device of this invention overcomes the usual lag in the process of destruction. This lag is due to the fact that papers in the pouch are bunched up and there is insufiicient air to bring about as complete a combustion as desiredbecause of the nature of the documents. Other objects and advantages will be brought out in the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view with parts of the outer casing broken away to show one embodiment of my invention;

Fig. 2; is a right hand side elevational view of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the explosive unit of the embodiment of Fig. 1; and,

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on line V-V of Fig. 4.

This invention relates to a combined incendiary and explosive element adapted to destroy documents beyond recognition. It comprises an incendiary unit 1 placed in a container 2 made of polystyrene plastic or cellulose acetate butyrate. The incendiary unit contains 80% K010 10% parafiin and 1% lampblack. This composition is known in the art as Krause mixture.

The explosive unit 3 is placed alongside of the incendiary unit. The explosive unit 3, shown in detail in Fig. 4, comprises a wooden case 4 having a long deep cavity extending through the center and terminating adjacent the bottom end thereof. This cavity contains two solid pellets 5 of high explosive such as tetryl, two tetryl pellets 6 having a cylindrical bore and two pellets 10 for delay. The bore of pellets 6 contains a detonator 7 and fuze 8. The adjoining pellets 6 and 10 are separated by a gasket 9.

The explosive ingredients are protected from direct heat of the burning incendiary 1 by the insulating jacket 4 of wood or some refractory insulators of inorganic type. The top of the wooden case is sealed bya plastic 11. The delay charge 10 is composed of the following ingredients: KNOs 50%, Pb30410%, polyvinyl alcohol 25%, sulfur 10%, Wood flour 4% and graphite 1% .as described in patent application Serial No. 544,134, filed July 8, 1944, by David Pearsall, and assigned to The Ensign-Biekford Go, now Pat. No. 2,416,639.

'As shown, the incendiary unit 1 and the explosive unit 3'are placed side by side in the container 2 which is equipped at the top with an igniter unitindicated generally at 12, comprising the usual assembly of a pull ring, primer, hinge pin, striker, fuze and the like.

The ignition fuze usedin the igniter mechanism unit 12 may be of the type or form conventionally used on hand grenades or smoke candles as described in Chemicals in War by A. M. Prentiss, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York and London, 1937, pages 307 and 308.

However, in a preferred modification of this invention the more effective delay element in the powder train holder 13 is represented by the fol'owing composition.

Percent Litharge 76.9 Silicon 19.3 Fullers earth 1.5

Celluloid 1.8 Graphite 0.5

as described in patent application Ser. No. 581,538, filed March 7, 1945, by Joseph H. McLain et al., now Pat. No. 2,643,946.

The embodiment of the invention described above, and shown in the accompanying drawings, is particularly adapted to be used in the military service as a messenger pouch destroyer. Of course it can obviously be used in many other connections. When used as a messenger pouch destroyer, the device may be carried in a messenger pouch containing documents, letters, maps, etc., or it may be carried outside of such a pouch. Preferably, the messages and other items in the pouch are written on special stationery or paper so as to be readily combustible. For example, the paper written or printed on may itself be made of a special combustible composition, or sheets of combustible paper may be interspersed between sheets of ordinary paper. Such combustible paper has a composition adapted on ignition to supply oxygen so that the difiiculty of rapidly burning the inner sheets of a pad in a confined space are overcome. A satisfactory pyrotechnic paper for this purpose is described in patent application Serial No. 558,230, filed October 11, 1944, by Lawrence W. Whitaker for Pyrotechnic Paper, now abandoned.

In use, when it becomes necessary for a messenger to destroy the contents of a messenger pouch, he pulls the pull ring of the igniter unit 12 and drops the munition into the pouch. The igniter unit 12 ignites both the incendiary charge 1 and the top delay pellet 10 of the explosive unit 3, through powder train holder 13. The burning incendiary charge 1 melts and burns through the case 2 and ignites the paper contents of the pouch. After a delay of 1 /22 minutes the delay pellets 10 will have burned down to the detonator 7 and fuse 8, whereupon the tetryl or other pellets 6 are detonated. The explosion caused by the pellets 6 destroys the charred remains and ashes of the pouch contents beyond all possible recognition.

A preferred form of my invention described above is subject to modifications within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim:

1. A messenger pouch destroyer comprising a combustible casing sufliciently small to be laced within a pouch, an incendiary unit and an explosive unit positioned side by side within said casing and each extending substantially from the top to bottom of the casing; said explosive unit comprising a body of insulating material provided with a bore extending from the top of said body to a point near, but above, the bottom thereof, an explosive charge within the lower portion of said bore, a detonator embedded in the upper portion of said explosive charge, and a delay mixture extending from the detonator substantially to the top of said bore; said incendiary unit comprising a charge of incendiary mixture filling the portion of the casing not occupied by said explosive from the top to the bottom thereof, said incendiary mixture comprising potassium perchlorate, parafiin and lampblack, a manually operable ignition fuse at the top of the casing and arranged to simultaneously ignite said delay mixture and said incendiary mixture, said delay mixture being designed to explode said detonator approximately 1 /2 to 2 minutes after said incendiary unit has burned through said casing.

2. A messenger pouch destroyer as defined in claim 1 wherein said casing is formed of plastic and said body of insulating material is a block of wood.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,276,402 Parkinson Aug. 20, 1918 1,435,228 Hammond Nov. 14, 1922 1,894,203 Spring Jan. 10, 1933 2,051,331 De Bohula Aug. 18, 1936 2,318,994 Helmbold May 11, 1943 2,323,426 Simpson July 6, 1943 2,374,230 Nicholas Apr. 24, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS 332,323 Germany Jan. 27, 1921 525,972 Great Britain Sept. 9, 1940 

